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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

On Sunday, we hosted a Fast & Female in Bend. I've done previous posts on the various Fast & Females I've been lucky to be a part of across the country and here is one more to add to the list of new F & F locations for me! Many of the Canadians are also having a training camp in Bend right now, so we had a handful of Canadian ambassadors, including olympic gold medalist and good friend of the US Ski Team, Chandra Crawford! Sadie and I were in charge of the youngest group, the 9-11 year olds. They were adorable and so excited to be there. Our stations consisted of Dancing with Diggins, core with Kikkan and Chandra (which ended up being imitating different olympic sports instead), and relay races with Liz and Rosie. After our outdoor activities, we had a healthy snack, listened to some inspirational talks from the ambassadors, had a Q&A session, and finished off the day with zumba and autographs. I was exhausted by the end so I can't imagine how all the little girls or dancing Diggins felt. It was a huge success and here are some photos that show how much fun we had. Thanks to Matt Whitcomb for the photos!

We came back from Fast and Female tired and hungry and were greeted with an amazing meal made by University of Oregon's Adam Korzun. Adam used to be the nutritionist for the USST and now works for Oregon so he was kind enough to make the trip over to see us while we're in Bend. Huge thanks to Adam for all your help and tasty cooking! Yesterday was a big day of training with a classic team sprint in the morning and strength in the afternoon. It was rainy and cold for the classic sprint, but we managed to have a high quality, "character building" workout. It was fun to go hard again and be able to do it with my teammates, who also happen to be some of the fastest girls in the world! Here are some photos from the wet day of racing, courtesy of Bryan Fish.

Erik striding out

Kikkan, Ida, Sophie

Sadie and Rosie enjoying some post rainy workout cupcakes!

Tasty shrimp and pork tacos, Mexican tabouli, and veggies made by Adam

Saturday, May 25, 2013

By the time I woke up Tuesday morning, everyone had arrived in Bend (poor Jessie didn't get in until late Monday night)! I've had four great mornings of skiing and afternoons that consist of dryland and strength training. The iphone weather app predicted rain everyday, but we've actually seen a lot of sun! I think I've had one day of snowy and rainy skiing, one day of sunny skiing, and a couple days that start out cloudy and clear up by the end of the ski. The morning workouts have been a mix of speed sessions, intervals, and easy distance and the afternoons have consisted of running, mountain biking, and strength. It's exciting to be on snow and easy to feel like I need to do every workout, but this is by far the most I've ever trained in May and I was reminded of that the other day when I got so tired I could barely move. The goal for the spring was to rest a lot and get a little out of shape, so every workout at this time of year does not always feel GREAT and that takes some getting used to. On the other hand, some workouts do feel great and it's easy to take advantage of the skiing and easy distance training to work on technique and strength to make gains in some other areas while we gradually work into feeling really fit again.

A couple of my favorite workouts so far have been the skate speeds and the team mountain bike. Our skate speed workout consisted of two stations where we would pair up and go as fast as we could for about 10 seconds. One station focused on sprint starts and the other stations focused on drop-ins, coming in with some speed and trying to carry that speeds well across a flat. It was fun to play around with different techniques and go head-to-head against athletes from the different clubs and countries that are here. We did about 6-8 speeds at each station with a few minutes of recovery between each one. Skate speed workouts have always been some of my favorite workouts and tend to be one of my strengths, making them even more fun! The team mountain bike was also a blast. We rented mountain bikes and headed up into the miles of trails right out our back door. The girls and boys quickly separated into two groups and began our adventures. I hadn't mountain biked in a long time so it took some time to feel comfortable on the bike, but it was so much fun. There were no big crashes but I toppled over three times because I kept forgetting to clip out of my pedals! I was completely exhausted by the end of that workout, but it was very worth it. Throwing in a different type of training every once in awhile adds a nice balance to the ski specific training that we've been doing every day.

Mtn Bike Crew (Holly Brooks photo)

Sodie Ski!

We have also had a busy social schedule! We went to the movie 42 and followed it up with a tasty Flatbread dinner date, had a delicious Mexican Fast & Female dinner, and have had the option of going to a couple yoga sessions. One of the coolest things we've done so far is the lunch we had with some of the biathletes and adaptive skiers. It was a pleasure to meet Oksana and Shawn and they both have incredible stories and a new fan club of the USST women. Some of the girls went to a hot yoga session the other day that I decided to skip because I was very tired, but I'm about to get ready for a yoga class this morning called "Gentle Flow" and I'm hoping it's a lot of lying on the floor and stretching in a nice cool room.

Monday, May 20, 2013

I flew out west on Sunday so I had my last day of Girls on the Run on Thursday. I wanted to do a quick post with some of the pictures I took from last week and a little Girls on the Run recap. I started volunteering for Girls on the Run this spring after getting in touch with Sarah Perry, the woman who is in charge of the program at Flood Brook Union School. I enjoyed going back to the place where I spent kindergarden through 8th grade. Many of the same teachers still work there and it was fun to see some familiar faces among the mix of new faces. Girls on the Run is for 3rd-8th grade at Flood Brook and Sarah is doing an amazing job with a big group of girls consisting of a huge range of abilities. While we usually do a short pep talk at the beginning of practice, going over topics such as peer pressure, generosity, and health, our main focus is to get out the door and run. The girls participate in a 5k running race in mid June and the goal is to slowly build up their fitness throughout the spring so they're able to complete it when the time comes! We ran our first 5k the other day around the trails at Flood Brook and almost everyone made it! Some girls were probably able to run a 5k at the beginning of the spring, while others take turns walking a lap then running a lap, but they're all happy to be there and encourage each other along the way. On my last day, we made posters for a marathon feed station the girls were working at yesterday. Here are some photos from the day, and thank you to Sarah and all the girls for letting me be a part of it - I will miss you all!

The poster I made with Lilly

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Erika's piece of art

I'm currently in the Salt Lake airport because I missed my connection for Bend last night. Flights out of Boston were delayed so by the time I landed in SLC, my flight to Bend had already left. Luckily, one of my good friends, Parker Tyler, lives in SLC and was kind enough to let me stay at her house last night. Jessie also missed her connection so we had a slumber party. Thanks Parker and Hannah for letting us stay over! We're hoping to have a little more luck and arrive in Bend sometime today. Also, congrats to my cousin, Anya, for graduating from UNH this weekend!!!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

It seems like yesterday when I was looking at the calendar and realizing I had three weeks to relax in VT before heading out west. I'm not sure where all the time went, but I suddenly have to be all packed up and ready to leave tomorrow! My first USST camp starts in Bend on Sunday, then I'll be going to Park City for the first three weeks of June for testing, an altitude block, and rookie camp. This weekend I'm going up to Hanover to visit my siblings and friends, going to UNH for my cousin Anya's graduation, then heading to Boston for a night before flying out on Sunday. That's why I need to be all packed up by tomorrow! I also need to pack just about everything because I will be skiing on snow for half the trip and dryland training for half the trip.

The past few weeks have been very relaxing and I've started to get back into the routine of training. The SMS T2 team is slowly trickling in and by the time I get back at the end of June, we will finally all be together! I've been doing a lot of road biking because I'm still trying to rest my foot and be smart about that. This was difficult at first because running is my favorite kind of exercise (well, 2nd to snow skiing) and road biking used to be one of my least favorite forms of exercise. In fact, road biking in the rain is my all-time least favorite form of exercise. I think of myself as a fair weather biker. Luckily, we had about 10 days of the most beautiful weather I've ever seen during a spring in VT. Each day was in the 70s and sunny and this made it easy for me to get my bike on! Unfortunately, that weather didn't last forever, but I think our cold rainy period is just about finished. I've also started my strength training for the year and as a result, I am constantly sore in one place or another, usually a little sore all over. It's fun to get back into the gym, but let's just say I have some work to do after taking an extended break from strength training. Here are some photos from my last few weeks at home!

The SMS crew heading out for a bike ride

biking isn't bad when you have a group of boys to break the wind for you

rollerskiing with the SMS girls

Ana and Pip skiing through the Stratton village!

biking next to Iz

watching Dudley Rose get her head stuck in a glass

Erika and I made homemade bibimbap

My dad and I were in charge of making the Mother's Day feast and it consisted of watermelon gazpacho, baguettes with steak, pesto, avocado, and cheddar cheese, a big salad, and mint chocolate chip meringues for dessert. We thought it was a success and the moms at least pretended they did!

Mother's Day lunch

Grandma and Dad

Mom and Austin

beautiful bike with Erika

a bike with Anya that started out nicely but ended in a torrential downpour